Time Warp Fiber

I finished a pair of socks this week. Yesterday, in fact. But I can't show you because they're a Christmas (Solstice/Yule/Festivus) present. In fact, I believe they may be the only holiday gift made this year. I don't feel compelled to do anything more. I firmly believe knitting should be fun, and knitting into the wee hours to try to finish a project that you now regard with loathing is not so fun. Anyway, I've got commission work for that. Yes, it's going slowly. Yes, it's due very soon. No, I haven't been working on it the past few days.

I finished another sock though, and this one I can show you. This is the one I cast on for last saturday. Basic sock, round heel, my foot-shaped toes. Eye of the partridge heel, reinforcing thread to make it sturdy. But it also made the heel far less fun to knit.  I've been motivated to work on this because I've borrow the needles from Kim, and I'd like to show my appreciation by returning them in a timely fashion. I should borrow needles for all my projects, get things done and save a fortune too. 

Lots of socks, no?  I'm rather fond of knitting socks, good portability and rather quick. I can knit the basic ones while I read, which is what I've been doing a lot lately as Butthead works on his master's thesis. And I love wearing handknit socks. I realized not too long ago that I only have four pairs of my own, far too few. I had five but I seem to have lost my first pair.Long story short, I've been on a sock knitting jag. Which leads me to some recent purchases. I work at a yarn shop. I live in a vat of temptation, surrounded by yarn and various knitterly accessories. Moreover, I have a not-so-secret paranoia. I know many knitters who began in the eighties, when there was (gasp) no good sock yarn. I fear this. Socks wear out. I can't just knit a dozen pairs now and keep them forever. I'll need more. What if sock knitting gets uncool again and I can't find any sock yarn? I'll be condemned to a life of trolling ebay and store-bought socks. So I buy sock yarn. Not as much, I have recently discovered, as some, but I can't help it. It's reasonably priced as yarn goes, and has a ready made, functional purpose. And, should the dark days of no good sock yarn come again, I shall be prepared. (visual relief from ranting monotony provided by Trekking Pro Natura, C*eye*ber Fiber in Bar Harbour, and Laura 's Unique Sheep Sushi Socks in Autumn in the City.)